can't read the handwriting, sharon gadberry, fillchen -- >> i'm bob planthoalt. i served on the state strategic plan because of my knowledge of muni, bart, caltran, l.a. metro link. other systems also are struggling with the issue of the cost of youth transit, both monthly passes or individual fares. i raised two kids in the public school system. they took muni. if i hadn't been able to get a free pass for myself throughnoje muni access committee i would have had great financial difficulty. i think you need to stop and look atykjy( what's been overlo. youth can't work. they don't get a job if you're 8 years old. we heard the discussion that maybe seniors and disabled should get free passes.

you know, i'm part of that constituency, but seniors and people with disabilities can get access to some money sources. maybe a social security pension, maybe ssi, social security disability insurance. the fact is youth don't have that access to money. we, who are seniors, or have a disability maybe we can work part time. account even though two mayors, brown and newsom talked about free muni for seniors they did nothing to really push for it. the last page of the preparation shows that only maybe 24% of the allotment would go towards this youth support program. that's important to keep in mind. the resolution doesn't say all for maintenance, it says prioritize. you could look at muni's plans and say they're consistent with the resolution. but please don't push for all of it. youth can't work and i'm going to say also, too many elected

officials at city hall don't have kids, or don't have kids that really need transit because their family can drive them. we want to change the youth mind that they don't think about needing to be driven to and from school. thank you. >> supervisor wiener: thank you. next speaker. >> my name is francisco decosta. first and foremost let me inform you that i've been following muni for the last 40 years, and i don't appreciate that while mr. risken was trying to explain something, again and again he was interrupted. that's totally uncalled for. having said that, all city, the city and county of san francisco, needs to help our youth, in whatever way they can. and you guys, who try to take that, you know, something, you all know practically nothing because you don't have a history of what muni did before.

for example, we had mayor frank jordan, who took all the money that was supposed to go for buses, and he used it to buy brand new police cars. you have no idea how much money was spent on the maintenance facility in the southeast sector. and i can go on and on and on. what we need is, we have a president now, his name happens to be barack hussein obama. and here in san francisco, we need to be progressive. we need to help our youth. and you guys, who are detriment to our youth, we are warning you. if you continue to be dividing the community, you will be recalled. not really on;ejpu9 this issue n other issues. let's be progressive. this is a -- call to you, let us be progressive. do not come down on our youth.

we have too many families live in san francisco. how many families do you want to leave san francisco. already 30,000/f families have left san francisco. why can't we give our youth free passes. let's do the right thing. thank you very much. >> supervisor wiener: next speaker. >> >> supervisor elsbernd: respectfully i think everyone in the room knows we don't applaud, we don't cheer. let the meeting continue without those kinds of interruptions. >> eric woo, part of the youth commission and i've worked on this campaign for a year with chinatown community development center. i'm speaking in favor of the -- need for low income youth program and i just want to highlight -- i just want to point out that this program, we are not investing either on capital improvements for muni,

or the -- or on our young people. we're doing both with the funding we have -- from the transit performance initiate source. i also want to highlight that the funding is a good fit for our pilot program. 40,000 youth would benefit from this program along with their families as well. thank you for your considerati consideration. >> supervisor wiener: next speaker. >> herbert wiener. as i prestled stated this month the difference be and the fran giants is that muni management always strikes out. presently muni is a train wreck that happened with less service and -- in addition bus stops have been deleted and bus routes altered or discontinued on grounds of making the service

run faster. the transit effectiveness project attempts to speed up service which hat not done to today. the additional funds should be use to do restore, alter or discontinue funds and if possible deleted bus stops. this project on the elderly, handicapped and seriously ill,= with the alteration and deletion of bus runs and bus stops physically impaired people are expected to walk a quarter of a mile to a bus stop which is unfair and cruel. in addition there is potential of fatal -- resulting in lawsuits that were -- cost the city. managers who have formulated this inequity have not batted an eyelash or eshtively responded to this cnch concern. the new bus stops-kja% that ree the old ones should be installed with new funds available. the board clearly has to bring this agency to -- which facing

the holiday season has had the worst service delivery since the days of emilio cruz. please use these funds for effective service delivery. tep does not stand for transit effectiveness project but stands for trashing elders, period. >> supervisor wiener: next speaker. >> hi. [speaking foreign language] >> translator: good morning. i'm a resident of chinatown. i currently have a son in middle school, and i'm here today to ask you to support to get a free muni pass for him and others.

our income currently is already flexible and unpredictable. it's barely enough to make ends meet for a family budget let alone to plan to buy a muni bus pass for my kid. i hope that we can have a free muni past pass so that children like my son can be able to get to school and after school program and after school activities. the story is true for not only

me but countless other low income families who depend on the muni bus pass to get to school and i hope this is something that can be implemented. the real hardship is on the immigrant families like mine whose income is unpredictable and having to make ends meet like rent and other expenses. i hope that the muni bus pass can be relieved. i hope that supervisor -- you can support muni for youth. thank you. >> supervisor wiener: thank you very much. next speaker. >> [speaking foreign language] >> translator: hi. my name is mrs. zhao and i also

live in chinatown. my family income is not high and i have two children and i hope supervisors you can support free muni. i currently have to buy bus passes for both my kids if i was able to have muni for youth it would decrease the burden on my expenses. supervisors i hope that you can pass muni for youth so that our children can become happy and it would be a great new year's resolution. >> thank you very much. >> supervisor wiener: thank you. next speaker.

>> hi, good morning. everybody. my name is j. woo, i am a p organizer for -- [speaking foreign language] >> translator: everyone in the audience if you're part of the sr -- we've been in the shuttle for over one year and this is an issue that is very important to our members. in this past one year of organizing around this issue diverse pockets of san francisco including bayview hunters point,

mission district, chinatown, the dloin -- tenderloin and others. if we were to have free muni for youth it would build an incentive and a habit for young people to utilize muni as their with a free muni bus pass children from different families can get to their after school curricular activities, school, tutoring and it's something for a healthy community. this does build life long ridership into young people's

lifestyles. supervisors and mta i hope you will seriously consider getting free muni for youth because it is something our community really needs. thank you. >> supervisor wiener: thank you. next speaker. >> [speaking spanish] >> translator: good morning before making a decision today i want to remind you of all the decisions you've made before that impact riders and that one of those decisions being to put

armed policemen on the buses. and by maki6jp)ñ that decision u didn't consider the impact that it would have to our communities, the brutal treatment of our young people on the buses. and you considered using funds of san francisco to be able to target and criminalize youth and that's why we're here

and we are organizing, asking and demanding that you support our youth in the city. as somebody said earlier, youth don't have income of their own. they don't have the economy to be able to move around the city. youth are our future and they're theó; zi ones that will be workg and increasing the economy here in the city. investing in our youth and families is an appropriate use

of transit funds. because our families are the ones who depend on muni service. we're thegjp[ones going out into the communities, organizing, speaking to our families and the majority of families in san francisco have said that they need this it to pass. it seems likes you are the o.g'l pass. so it's not just about this pilot program because we have to be thinking about the just use of these funds.

we will continue to fight and organize and this opportunity it's time that san francisco uses a very small portion of this funds to be able to fund this program that will support so many families. thank you. >> supervisor wiener: thank you. next speaker. and i'm going to -- it looks like we have more people lined up than we called cards so i'm going to call additional cards before we go to the next speaker. jane martin, jillian gillett, glennishia campbell ston, patricia ubency, cecilia pérez, margarita -- beatrice montenegro, daniel boyd -- next speaker. >> good morning, supervisors. my name's sharon gadberry. i recently presented a civil

grand jury report on muni switchbacks. we found that 20 to 30,000 riders a month are made to get off their bus or train, due to shortages in the muni system. at that time, muni refused to comply with our request to end this practice of switchbacks, mainly due to the deficiencies that they cited in their system. since our jury is no longer meeting they did not take a position on supervisor ween's proposal so my testimony is personal as a muni rider and as a person who completed a study on muni. i support supervisor wiener's proposal to apply also i think all -- all and any new funds should bring the system up to speed, before any new and free ridership is offered.

sfmta has many plans for improving their system. however, these plans have not been achieved. no free rides should be offered untilukvz those improvements hae taken place. it's a wonderful idea to increase ridership, but not if it penalizes current riders even further. the timing is wrong. there's no assurance that students will arrive at school on time currently and until that assurance is made, that workers and students will arrive on time, this -- the idea of free ridership should not be approved. thank you. >> supervisor wiener: thank you. mr. chairman, this is really not acceptable. >> supervisor elsbernd: excuse me. excuse me. everybody needs to be treated with respect. >> roberts rules of order, it happens in congress --

>> supervisor elsbernd: sir. >> stiewrm right, roberts rules of order. >> supervisor elsbernd: thank you. i would ask everybody to be respectful in this room. thank you. >> supervisor wiener: next speaker. >> hi. i live in the mission district, and i'm a member of power. and this morning i'm here to support the free bus passes for the youth because i think that is good that the kids are getting free muni passes because that way they don't have to be scared of getting tickets on the bus, and that way it gives the kids to get to school on time and to be able to learn. i feel like that's not fair that families and the kids -- we delay this process because they will continue to suffer just to get to school. we -- this money and we need to invest it in our families.

>> supervisor wiener: thank you very much. next speaker. >> mr. chairman, supervisors, my name is phil chin. and i am here on behalf of the chinatown transportation research and improvement project. here, i think you see a class of values. it's pretty important to address maintenance. but it's also pretty important to address the needs of youth. we have a great deal of faith in director ed risken ability to run the system at mta, and we think that he's doing a great job. over time, he's going to fix the system. we also know for a fact that many youth come from extremely

poor families. for example, the rate of children in poverty is five times higher than in chinatown many of these kids live in non-standard, eight by 10 sro units, because their parents can't afford to live in a standard housing unit. these kids very definitely need help with their muni fares. we support free muni for youth because we think it is something that is needed, and essential. we are not discounting the need for maintenance. but we do not believe that taking money away from the youth fare program would solve the problem. we believe there's a bigger discussion that should be taking place -- extensive muni maintenance programs, and that

should not impact the youth fare. by putting a band-aid on the maintenance issue, we're just kicking the can down the road. and, finally, we think that it sends a wrong message, in terms of discouraging youth involvement in the democratic process. thank you. >> supervisor wiener: thank you very much. next speaker. >> so thank you. i'm jesse michael benjamin hughes mcauthor. i'm here to make a statement not to petition anything. the kids need free transportation but actually every citizen should get free transportation. why is it you can go to london and broadway where they have russian consulate and i park my mercedes benz free for a month. i ride for free on the month.

i get on the back of the bus. i have never been cited in my entire life. i watch people. people -- not you individuals, but the police department that is corrupt and being investigated just like the mayor's office and supervisor olague -- i'm letting you know, there is plenty of money in san francisco. i spend a lot of time in the presidio and the marina. we have yacht clubs and fancy things. you all need to read what's on the statue of liberty again. it says bringljpãus your poor ad tired. this is america and california was stolen in 1848 when we scouted out the gold and took it from mexico and asians died building our transcontinental railroads. i'm head of security for occupy

san francisco. i've had six phones stolen, i have knifes appear guns and these are infiltrators sent by the mayor's office who has tied to organized crime. those two girls were lying at the club. i have video evidence of them being first timatious. this is nonsense. it's public transportation. it was funded by trrp dollars. you all are trippin'. now i'm going to put the mayor on notice that he can either resign today or we're doing a recall in san francisco. >> supervisor wiener: next speaker. >> that's a tough act to follow. my name is paul, a member of the san francisco youth commission. the youth commission is -- the responsibilities of the youth commission are outlined in the charter in terms of working to

identify needs of youth in the city and county of san francisco but working in collaboration with the mayor's office, supervisor and members of the community to address those needs. if you look at how transit is currently affecting youth yud know there are tremendous needs out there. increases incessant coupled with budget cuts is putting our youth further behind. we know these needs exist and we know they're obvious. we saw ed2mj[u risken present te is a 40% drop in ridership. if you needed more evidence that this is an issue youth is experiencing it's there before you. we want to emphasize on behalf of the youth commission that access to transit month should not only be privileges for those who can afford them but are a right that should be enjoyed and benefited by everybody in the city and county of san francisco. we also feel that by supporting the muni for youth program what you are doing is investing in a

new generation of transit ridership. if we are a transit-first city then we need to own up to that and this is an exact opportunity that we can do that. the way that the proposal that currently stands, it's really unfortunate but it does pit youth services and youth programs against this multi-million dollar financial deficit that muni has been experiencing for many years and that's not necessarily fair and is based on an erroneous dichotomy, the case what ed risken was saying. we hope you can keep and open mind and invest in our youth by supporting this program. thank you. you. next speaker. i have a few more cards. i'm going to call them so i've called through all the cards. carl noe, jarron brown, paul slade, walter brown, amelia, and

peter louderborn. those are the cards i have. thank you. >> good morning, government and audit oversight committee. waller james, here representing the central city srojp collaborative and all the sro collaboratives around the city and also power, and also mainly the youth. i just have a couple of points that i want to make and just give you guys a small personal story. i remember back in the day like in the 90's, living with my sister, or just being expose to do like children that are in the ghetto, different areas that might not have too much guidance, you wonders why they don't get up and go to school. some of it might be due3y%( &3çy some of it might be due3y%( &3çy you think,÷% really was they were embarrassed because they didn't have any pae÷ mightause if you@ notice in the last 20 years, get past middle school. and if you read the paper this weekend, you've seen that the

juniors here in san francisco, they're not even graduating from small technical stipulation. i didn't read the paper but you see where it's going, these little technicalities is slowing people down. you guys have the power, despite the community -- here but if you have the power instead of picking like the easy target, which may not be too much work for you, but choose a target, maybe put work in it and look at it from a different perspective. there's one more small item i want your attention on. you can use muni fast pass as a tool to teacher students accountability, responsibility and also you can use it to inspire their parents to guide the youth and the other main point is don't use it as a tool to criminalize youth like those being done in san francisco. thanks. >> supervisor wiener: thank you. next speaker. >> good